Head of the medieval church in the West. Used as a title preceding the name of the BishopBishop Bishops exercised pastoral care over a diocese and authority to confirm and ordain of RomeRome This Italian city was the capital of the Roman Empire and, with the primacy accorded to the bishops of Rome (the popes), the centre of the Western Church from the late-Antique period onwards. Rome was not only the administrative centre, but an important source of innovation, relics and liturgy. Missionaries from Rome played an important role in the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England from late 6th century onward., the head of the Roman Catholic Church